Photo: Bloomberg
Two Los Angeles County deputies who were ambushed in their patrol car last September have filed a lawsuit against a company that makes "ghost gun" kits. The lawsuit accuses Nevada-based Polymer80 Inc. of negligently and unlawfully selling an "untraceable home-assembled gun kit" that was used in the attack.
Claudia Apolinar and Emmanuel "Manny" Perez-Perez were sitting in their marked patrol car when Deonte Murray walked up to the car and opened fire on the two officers.
Murray was arrested three days later and tossed a PF940c handgun from his vehicle during a police chase. Murray was not allowed to own a firearm due to numerous felony convictions. The gun did not have a serial number, but ballistics confirmed it was used in the attack on Apolinar and Perez-Perez.
The homemade gun kits are not considered firearms by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and sellers are not required to conduct a background on buyers.
The lawsuit alleges that Polymer80 sold "ghost gun kits without serial numbers and without taking reasonable steps to ensure that purchasers are legally allowed to purchase or possess firearms, despite knowing that their deadly products are especially attractive to criminals and would likely and foreseeably end up in the hands of dangerous persons prohibited from legally owning firearms under federal and state law."
Officials blasted the gun maker for helping criminals get their hands on untraceable weapons they should not be allowed to own.
"Nobody who could buy a serialized gun and pass a background check would ever need a ghost gun," Los Angeles Attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement. "Yet we allege Polymer80 has made it easy for anyone, including felons, to buy and build weapons that pose a major public safety threat."